Ed Zieralski

Bob Gibson was named MVP of the 1964 World Series and awarded a new Corvette as a prize. A few days after the series ended, Gibson was driving from St. Louis back to Omaha, when he was pulled over by a cop in a small Missouri town. The cop demanded to see the Title of the car. Gibson didn’t have one, he explained, because the car was brand new. Gibson asked the cop why he’d been stopped and the cop said there had been a report of a stolen Corvette just like the one Gibson was driving. Bob Gibson couldn’t restrain himself and blurted out: “Bullshit.” Bob Gibson told the cop he just didn’t think a Black man could come by such an expensive car honestly. Gibson showed the cop his license and told him he was the Cardinal pitcher who’d just pitched the winning game in the World Series. The cop let him go. Gibson sold the Corvette. Forty years later, Robbie Tolan, the son of Gibson’s friend and former team-mate, Bobby Tolan, was driving home with his cousin from a late-night visit to the local Jack-in-the-Box in Bellaire, Texas, a predominately white suburb of Houston known as the: “City of Homes.” Robbie Tolan was himself a minor league player for the Bay Area Toros, a minor league affiliate of the Washington Nationals based in Texas City. As Robbie and his cousin got out of the car in the Tolan family’s driveway, the two young men were surrounded by cops, pointing flashlights and guns at them. The police ordered Tolan to the ground. At this point, Bobby Tolan and his wife emerged from their house and asked what was going on. One of the cops said that Robbie and his cousin were suspected of driving a stolen car. Then another cop car pulled up driven by Officer Jeffrey Cotton, a 10-year veteran of the department. But instead of calming the situation, Officer Cotton confronted Robbie’s mother Marie, who was trying to explain that Robbie had driven his own car to his family home. But Cotton wasn’t hearing it and shoved her against the wall of the house. Robbie Tolan, who was lying prone at the time, began to rise and was almost immediately shot by Cotton, the bullet piercing his lung and liver. Officer Cotton later claimed that Tolan had been reaching for a gun. But Tolan was unarmed and an analysis of the shooting showed that Robbie had been on all fours facing the ground when he was shot in the back. Cotton was charged with aggravated assault and some lesser offenses, but was quickly acquitted of all charges by a jury of 10 whites and two Blacks. Robbie Tolan survived but never played baseball again. A settlement was reached with the City of Bellaire for $110,000. His father Bobby Tolan, became Tony Gwynn’s first and favorite hitting coach. Bob Gibson and Robbie Tolan.